Manual/Weapons
Weapon design is changed from Quake III Arena, but they work the same way. Each weapon has got an unique fire type. There is a mod for Quake 3 that works also with OpenArena and adds a secondary fuction to each weapon: Alternate Fire. Another mod that adds additional fire modes is Rune Quake 3. Vanilla OpenArena weapons These are the weapons from the original Quake III Arena. Gauntlet *The gauntlet is a mêlée weapon which combines a whirling saw blade with an electrical charge. It is used for close combat only, and one hit inflicts 50 damage. When a gauntlet kill is achieved, the killer earns a gauntlet medal and the both the killer and the victim receive a "humiliation" message. It is normally a last-resort weapon, but is also useful in narrow corridors and doorways. Machine Gun *The machine gun is the other weapon that the player starts out with. It is a hitscan weapon that can rapidly inflict small amounts of damage (7 hp per bullet, 5 hp in TDM) and has a small degree of spread (approx. 2 degrees). The machinegun has a rate of ten shots per second. Shotgun *The shotgun is primarily used for close range combat since its large spray diminishes with distance. The shotgun shoots 11 pellets that deal 10 damage each, so a concentrated spread can kill an unarmoured player. Like the machine gun, it is an instant impact weapon. The shotgun is found on almost every stock map. To mitigate its high damage it has a one second delay between shots. Grenade Launcher *This weapon fires grenades that detonate either on contact with another player or 2.5 seconds after being launched. Grenades will not detonate as a result of contact by the one who launched it or be obstructed by him/her. In comparison to the rocket launcher, it releases projectiles faster although more ordnance is required to inflict similar damage due to the grenade's inaccurate short-range arc and bounce unpredictability (making it hard to score a direct hit). It fires at a rate of 0.8 seconds. Rocket Launcher *The rocket launcher can inflict a lot of damage with little aim as the rocket impacts cause a lot of splash damage. Because of its wide blast radius, players are encouraged to shoot the ground, wall, or ceiling, rather than aim for the opponent directly. This however becomes a double-edged sword at closer ranges; at point blank range the player could significantly harm or kill himself if he is careless. This weapon can also be used to rocketjump, taking advantage of the player's own blast to reach even higher heights than regular jumping. A direct hit on an opponent deals 100 damage, but splash damage cannot be added to the victim. Lightning Gun *The lightning gun (also referred as the shaft) is much like the machine gun it directly impacts to a destination, but it fires a beam with limited range. It can kill a healthy opponent in less than two seconds because it shoots at 0.05 seconds per pulse. Rail Gun *The railgun is primarily used for long range combat or sniping. It is 100% accurate, inflicts 100 damage but has a low fire rate (default 1.5 seconds). Plasma Gun *The plasma gun is an effective weapon for close to medium range combat. It rapidly fires a stream of deadly pulses (10 per second) which inflict a significant amount of damage (20 hp per orb). The fast-traveling bursts however are not instant impact like the machine gun. The plasma also inflicts minor splash damage, which can actually be used to "plasma climb". But, because the power of the splash damage is small, plasma climbing is slower than rocket jumping, cannot gain as much height, and requires more skill. (more details about plasma climbing are under the Techniques section). BFG10K *BFG10K is considered the ultimate weapon. A rapid-fire weapon, firing out bursts of fast-moving plasma at a rate of about 5 shots per second, which inflict damage and splash damage 100 hp per cell. In effect, BFG10k is a rapid-fire Rocket Launcher with faster projectiles and other than the name it shares little in common with the first famous BFG weapon. It exists a Mod for Quake III Arena that works also with OpenArena and features the BFG from Quake II instead of the one from Quake 3: BFG10K Arena. Missionpack additional weapons These weapons are originally from Quake III: Team Arena. They can be found in standard OA too, so learn to use them. Prox mine launcher Launches prox mines that stick to the ground, wall, ceiling or even to other players. They will explode if enemy is close, are hit by splash damage or after 20 seconds. They deal up to 150 damage. The prox mines are color coded and they will not cause any harm to you or your teammates, although they can push you back. Mines are normally only found in team games but should you get a mine launcher in a ffa gametype then the mines will not be coded and you can trigger them although they will still not deal any damage. Mines on players are hidden but active on the corpse until the body disappears. ChainGun A powerful Gatling gun. Similar to the Machine gun, but fires ammo at a much faster rate. It can be very deadly but its ammo will not last long. Damage per shot is identical to the machine gun: 7 (5 for TDM). The spread is about 3 times larger than the machinegun. Nail gun Fires a wave of 20 nails that hurts 20 HP each. However, it is a bit slow. Offhand grapple Offhand grapple, also known as grappling hook ("grapple" or "hook" for short), is not a normal weapon (it makes 2 damage if you hit a player with it, but it is not its goal). You can use it only if it is included in the map (in OA 0.8.5, no standard map have it) or if you are playing Elimination, CTF Elimination or Last Man Standing game modes with \elimination_grapple 1 (enabled). Offhand grapple is selected like a weapon in your inventory. Select it, then shoot to a wall and hold the button: you will be dragged there and you will remain there until you release the button. While you are hanging, you can switch to a "real" weapon, and shoot your enemies: in this case, you will detach only when you select the hook again, without pressing fire button. Some mods (like CorkScrew or Alternate Fire) may include a different kind of offhand grapple, which does not appear in the weapon bar. This kind of mod-specific hook must be "binded" to a particular key, and you do not need to select grapple before using it. Related CVARS: * g_offhand_grapple (for example, some mods -like Alternate Fire- enable or disable an always-equipped hook through this variable, that is probably not part of the base OpenArena game, or similar) * elimination_grapple (1 enables and 0 disables grapple in Elimination, CTF Elimination and Last Man Standing modes) Category:Manual